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Jari-Matti Latvala's Lahti Historic Rally almost unraveled right after the first stage
Photography by Keiko Ito, Toyota
Words by David Evans, DirtFish Senior Staff Writer
Six days on from watching his team finish second in Finland’s round of the World Rally Championship, Jari-Matti Latvala put Toyota’s record straight with a commanding victory on the Lahti Historic Rally.
Latvala guided his Toyota Celica GT-4 to a commanding victory on the two-day event, winning all 12 stages.
“It was really nice to win,” Latvala told DirtFish, “but I think it might have been a little bit easier for me than for the guys last week!”
Latvala admitted this weekend’s Lahti event had helped him through Rally Finland week.
“You know I love to drive,” he said. “And missing Rally Finland is always the toughest one of the season – knowing I had Lahti to come to just a few days later was a big help.”
Co-driven as usual by Toyota test driver Juho Hänninen, he relished the return to a rally he’s won five times in the past.
“This year we were using some of the stages we ran on Rally Finland in 2011 and 2012,” said Latvala. “They are really nice roads – but this event wasn’t quite so straightforward for me this year. Yes, we did well, but there was another story as well.”
“It was starting with the first stage,” explained the 18-time world rally winner. “We lost the oil filter from the gearbox and then we lost the oil. I knew this was a strong gearbox – it’s the original homologated ’box from Xtrac – so I wasn’t so worried. It meant we didn’t have the centre diff in the car, so it was really in rear-wheel drive for the first loop of three stages.
“When we came to service, we found something a little bit worse. The engine was sounding a little bit strange on idle and it turned out some bearings had worn out – when we pushed the clutch, we were actually moving the crankshaft!
“I said to the boys at this time that I didn’t want to stop. I knew I had to drive the rest of the day without using the clutch at all. I usually make downshifts without the clutch, but now I had to do upshifts as well – and on the road section! It didn’t feel so nice, but as long as you could get the revs correct and then be quite aggressive with the ’box it was OK.”
While Latvala was busy winning the rest of the day’s stages, his mechanics had been back to the team’s base and located new bearings for the event of Friday service.
“Honestly,” said Latvala, “I don’t remember a busier service for a long time. I am so proud and so grateful to the team for keeping Juho and me in the rally. They changed the bearings, really a big job and we only got 1m30s of penalties (for being nine minutes late out of service).
“My father was competing in another Toyota and he had some problems with the propshaft on his car. I had five of the mechanics on my car and only one on his, so I was getting my hands dirty and trying to fix his car as well!”
The J-ML Celica was back on song on Saturday morning.
“With the car perfect again,” said Latvala, “I decided it would be a bit like the old days when I was a WRC driver. I attacked quite hard. At the end of the stage, Juho said to me: “I felt you were pushing a bit more. I didn’t like to look up, so I just kept reading!”
“I really enjoyed the event. It was a bit of a challenge, but it’s always great to win on these roads.”
Look and learn, Kalle and co.
Tags: Jari-Matti Latvala, Lahti Historic Rally, Toyota Celica GT-4
Publish Date August 14, 2022 DirtFish https://www-dirtfish.imgix.net/2022/08/JML-Lahti.jpg?fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=585&ixlib=php-1.2.1&q=70&w=780&wpsize=entry-main August 14, 2022
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Copyright © 2022 DirtFish, LLC. All rights reserved.
Subaru Impreza STI Sedan & Hatchback Features
Roll Cage: Every rally car requires a welded-in safety cage. The roll cages in our cars are built in-house from scratch.
Racing Seats: Driver and co-driver need to be firmly mounted to the structure of the vehicle. The use of hinged-back seats in rally vehicles is prohibited in rally and most forms of racing.
Racing Harnesses: Safety first. A minimum of a 5-point harness is required by all American rally sanctioning bodies. The 5 points consist of 2 shoulder harness, 2 lap belts and a single anti-submarine belt (not shown).
Handbrake: Most rally cars use a hydraulic handbrake. The purpose of the handbrake maneuver is to turn a car around a very tight corner by locking up the rear wheels aiding in the rotation of the car around the corner.
Engine: Our Subaru STi’s use a 2.5 liter 4-cylinder Turbo-charged Boxer engine.
Drive train: The Subaru STi is equipped with an advanced all-wheel-drive system with an active center differential.
Gravel Rally Tires: Being a rally school, we spend most of our time on gravel roads. To maximize the learning experience, we outfit all of our cars with the latest gravel rally tires for maximum traction.
Method Rally Wheels: It is very important to have a durably strong, yet lightweight rally wheel that can hold up to constant abuse, rocks, rough roads and punctures. At DirtFish, we use and trust Method Race Wheels.
Suspension: Rally is rarely on a perfectly smooth roads, because of that rally cars require suspension that can take the abuse. We choose to use Reiger rally suspension on our cars.
Brakes: Rally cars commonly use a 15″ rally wheel. In order for the wheels to fit on our Subaru STi’s, we had to convert them to a Group N brake setup.
Underbody Protection: Driving at high speeds over variable surfaces can easily damage parts. With the constant spray of gravel that gets thrown at them, skid plates and urethane underbody protection help with the longevity of the underbody of the cars.
Roll Cage: Every rally car requires a welded-in safety cage. The roll cages in our cars are built in-house from scratch.
Racing Seats: Driver and co-driver need to be firmly mounted to the structure of the vehicle. The use of hinged-back seats in rally vehicles is prohibited in rally and most forms of racing.
Racing Harnesses: Safety first. A minimum of a 5-point harness is required by all American rally sanctioning bodies. The 5 points consist of 2 shoulder harness, 2 lap belts and a single anti-submarine belt (not shown).
Handbrake: Most rally cars use a hydraulic handbrake. The purpose of the handbrake maneuver is to turn a car around a very tight corner by locking up the rear wheels to aid the rotation of the car around the corner.
Engine: The Subary BRZ is powered by a 2.0 liter naturally aspirated Boxer engine.
Drive train: The Subaru BRZ is rear-wheel-drive and equipped with a limited slip differential.
Gravel Rally Tires: Being a rally school, we spend most of our time on gravel roads. To maximize the learning experience, we outfit all of our cars with the latest gravel rally tires for maximum traction.
Method Rally Wheels: It is very important to have a durably strong, yet lightweight rally wheel that can hold up to constant abuse, rocks, rough roads and punctures. At DirtFish, we use and trust Method Race Wheels.
Suspension: Rally is rarely on a perfectly smooth roads, because of that rally cars require suspension that can take the abuse. We choose to use Reiger rally suspension on our cars.
Brakes: Rally cars commonly use a 15″ rally wheel. Luckily with the Subaru BRZ’s, the stock brake system is more than adequate for our programs.
Underbody Protection: Driving at high speeds over variable surfaces can easily damage parts. With the constant spray of gravel that gets thrown at them, skid plates and urethane underbody protection help with the longevity of the underbody of the cars.
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